Women in RAi: Generative AI and the representation of women

Event Details

• Main event: 17:30 - 19:00
• Drinks Reception: 19:00 - 20:00

Advancements in generative AI are revolutionising the creation of virtual characters and fantasies by leveraging AI image, video, voice, and language generation.

This trend has the potential to enhance virtual experiences, offering new possibilities for personalised interactions. However, for those already experiencing discrimination and marginalisation in technology and cultural production, the control over collective and individual identity faces increasing threats. Generative AI art has led to the appropriation of women’s images, shaping new female fantasies within male-dominated spaces. This new hands-on workshop delves into generative AI identity and fiction-making, fostering collective discussion and knowledge-sharing on its impact on our collective and individual identities.

The workshop is for women and gender non-conforming people. Please bring a laptop if you have one. In the workshop you will work on your own AI portrait, ideally of yourself, so you will need to consider how to describe your appearance by developing a written prompt. If this is something you do not feel comfortable with you could describe another person. At the end of the workshop, if you choose, we will invite you to share the prompts you have written with the group.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception.

This initiative was founded and started in collaboration with Dr Coral Manton and Åste Amundsen.

Workshop Programme

17:30–17:40 | The Representation of Women in Generative AI: Introduction by Dr Caitlin Bentley (Senior Lecturer in AI Education, King’s College London)

17:40–17:50 | Overview of RAi UK cutting-edge projects by Dr Imke van Heerden (Research Associate in AI in the Creative Sector) and Dr Maira Klyshbekova (Research Associate in AI Education), King’s College London

17:50–18:50 | Portrait generation and group discussion

18:50–19:00 | Concluding remarks

19:00–20:00 | Drinks reception

Speaker Bios

Dr Caitlin Bentley is Deputy Chair of the RAi UK Skills Pillar and Co-Director of the UKRI Safe & Trusted AI Centre for Doctoral Training as well as the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training on Advanced Engineering for Personalised Surgery & Intervention. Her recent research has focused on Intersectional design and deployment of autonomous systems.

Dr Imke van Heerden is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at RAi UK, based in the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London, and Co-Lead of ARTificial Intelligence: Show me a Story about AI. Her research lies at the intersection of literary studies, natural language generation, and computational creativity.

Dr Maira Klyshbekova is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in AI and Education at King’s College London. Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach, exploring the intersection of education and AI, and participatory research methodologies. She is investigating the role and place of culture in prompt engineering.

Founding Collaborator Bios

Dr Coral Manton is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Computing and Course Leader for BA Hons Games Development at Bath Spa University. She is an active artist-technologist and game developer who has worked in AAA, Indie, and Serious Games. Along with Dr Birgitte Aga, Coral founded Women Reclaiming AI, which is a feminist AI voice assistant developed through participatory workshops with a growing community of self-identifying women.

Åste Amundsen is a theatre maker, art director, artist, and experience designer working in the areas of interactive theatre, immersive storytelling, and technology driven personalised audience experience. She is also the founder of Computer Aided Theatre (C.A.T) and a current doctoral researcher with StoryFutures.